Between pay-day lull in activity broken by some interesting events!
The Long Hard Mid-Month Slog...
Starting something as 'collecting intensive' as designing a model railway layout from scratch has one major drawback... The accumulation of all the essential bits and pieces you require just to set up a modest layout. 😫
It's perhaps my own fault that I chose to get into a new hobby when my income is taking a severe hit due to enforced retirement (er, maybe I hadn't thought this through, but then again when do I ever)!
To make matters worse I chose the KATO N gauge system route, which - while it makes things a lot easier when designing experimental layouts because of it's ease and modularity - is a trifle more expensive that the traditional PEKO route.
In short, buying even individual pieces of track - like points - can be a 'once a month' event which will make the whole process a depressingly long hard slog (I estimate that my bare-bones Mk. I layout *might* be ready by about November of this year)! 😟
But Some Cheery News...
OK, let's not get too negative about this, a hobby predominately based on collecting can always be an up hill struggle BUT that's part of the fun and challenge. Plus, even when you are on a tight budget there are work arounds that can help the process a little easier and this week saw me benefit from two such means of saving some pennies! (Or actually Pounds really!)
First of all, I received a donation from brother - who is co-incidentally also building an N gauge layout at the same time - who came across some KATO items in a batch of an eBay haul! Donations are always very welcome in what can be a fairly costly hobby and have certainly helped me out here (as you will see in my accompanying video)...
And, secondly, another means of keeping costs down is to build the models you need yourself - in other words, scratch-building. This is something I am keen to do and in fact the example highlighted here is my very first attempt to do this.
So without further ado here's my video highlighting what I have accumulated over the past couple of weeks,,,
As Lieutenant Columbo Says, 'Just One More Thing'!
Every item I get for making this layout is accumulative, no matter how small. While I perhaps wouldn't mention certain small incidental accessories or items I have collected for past hobbies, in this case I think that every acquisition is worth noting as they all assist in moving my current projects forward.
In this case I purchased a couple of little bags of modelling components that are important for two reasons and so are definitely worth mentioning. Yesterday I received a delivery of a couple of sets of N gauge laser cut window frames...
A concession to wobbly hands and dodgy eyesight! 😆 Time was, not so long ago either, I would scratch build small items like these for my military models... Now I think 'feck that' and buy pre-made components instead!
These tiny 1/148 scale window frames will save me the embarrassment and frustration AND they are made by a local company... Plus £3.75 is a small price to pay for a (relatively) stress-free model making session! 😁
And that's it until pay day (a week and a bit away)... Then I have a bit of a decision to make, more track or some rolling stoke - OR a bit of both IF I can afford it! 😶
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